Woke up a few times during the night as I had initially set my alarm for 5:45. After sleeping for a bit, I reset it for 4:30. I got up & put all my transition gear in my back pack & headed down to the bike transition area. I found my row of where my bike should be, pointed it in the right direction for easy removal. Put my towel down & arranged the gear in order of putting it on (based on Carole’s recommendations, she’s a local triathlete who gave me some advice).

I looked for the marking that I thought started @ 5, but didn’t start till 5:30. Did that (#902 written on both arms, my age (37) was written on my right calf). Waited a small bit for my timing chip to get there & organized. Once I got that, I was outta there & headed back to the room. I ate a cinnamon bun & I had a couple of minutes of quiet time & then headed to the beach to watch the Olympic swimmers.

The first group of swimmers (elite & pro) headed for the wrong buoy. Instead of going right they went left & had to be re-routed via the Kayaks.

Once all the Olympic swimmers headed out they had to change to buoys around for the sprint distance. The buoy was not placed in the water when the sprint men were suppose to start. The race officials said “go” & none of the swimmers headed into the water & they all shouted “where’s the buoy!?!” It was quite comical.

The buoy popped & they had to delay the start of the sprint.

Once they started then I headed into the water for a bit of a swim warm-up. I felt good.

So off I went to the start line. I did a couple of swims like I wanted to, but kept running into a lady who wouldn’t speed up. So I slowed down. I caught a bit of water & spit it out. I started to go on my back just to get forward momentum. I was pretty good at spotting the buoys & didn’t get off track until I had to go towards shore. The current was pretty strong & I needed to go on a sharp angle to get to the stairs & the current pushed me straight, so I swam hard to get on track.

The water was not clear like I thought it would be, which was actually ok. I don’t think I really wanted to see what was in the water with me, but at the same time it might have been really pretty under the water.

The swim was slower than I wanted by about 5 minutes, but I am truly happy that I made it through that portion. (37 minutes & change)

The run to the bike transition was a bit slow. I found my bike & put my stuff on. Headed to the mount line & saw jason & justine, which made me feel really happy. (6:30 & change)

The head wind on the course was pretty strong, I conserved my energy for the ride back with the tail wind. I passed people on the way out, but had to have a small stop due to traffic. Once we were given the go ahead, I didn’t worry about drafting & did as much as I could till we were a bit more spread out. Then I passed & continued on with the race. The bike felt really good. (53 minutes & change)

I transitioned pretty quick into the run & my legs were a bit heavy. (2:30 & change)

My lungs were still sore from catching some water & I was coughing pretty hard still. I couldn’t take deep breaths in. By the 2.5 km mark my legs were feeling a bit better & I finished the race with a beach run to the finish line with jason & justine waiting for me. (run time 37 minutes….extremely slow-usually do a 5 k in 23 minutes…ugh)

I was so happy to see them. Also so happy to be done. Overall time 2:16 & change.

It was hard & fun at the same time…yahoo.

It was a pretty hard race & an ironman will have to wait until I master the open water swimming & transitions & running!!!